Chaotic influx of refugees to Lebanon stirs fears

In this on Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 photo, a Syrian woman who fled her home with her family due to fighting between rebels and government forces, feeds her grandchildren inside their tent, in the southern city of Tyre, Lebanon. According to the United Nations refugee agency, there are now more than 265,000 Syrian refugees scattered across Lebanon, straining services in health, education and housing, pushing up prices and causing friction with Lebanese, some of whom resent their presence and blame them for everything from rising crime to the country's notorious traffic. The issue is particularly sensitive given Lebanon's long and complicated history with tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who fled to Lebanon with Israel's creation in 1948, as well as Syria's long dominance over Lebanese politics. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
— AP

In this on Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 photo, a Syrian woman who fled her home with her family due to fighting between rebels and government forces, feeds her grandchildren inside their tent, in the southern city of Tyre, Lebanon. According to the United Nations refugee agency, there are now more than 265,000 Syrian refugees scattered across Lebanon, straining services in health, education and housing, pushing up prices and causing friction with Lebanese, some of whom resent their presence and blame them for everything from rising crime to the country's notorious traffic. The issue is particularly sensitive given Lebanon's long and complicated history with tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who fled to Lebanon with Israel's creation in 1948, as well as Syria's long dominance over Lebanese politics. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
/ AP

"Lebanon is not a garbage dump for the world's problems," Energy and Water minister Jibran Bassil said, suggesting the government should deport refugees back to their own country.

"You invite people to your home, you have an empty bed that sleeps one or two. Three others sleep on the floor, four on the roof, five in the garden. And then what? The house cannot take any more," he added.

Critics were quick to jump on Bassil for those remarks, but his words resonated with many who resent the Syrian presence.

"We have suffered enough because of the Syrians," said Jamal, a shipping executive, referring to Syria's long dominance of the country's politics. He declined to give his full name because the issue is still sensitive in Lebanon, despite Syria's troop withdrawal from the country seven years ago.

Syrian troops controlled Lebanon for three decades. They were forced to withdraw under international pressure following a Lebanese uprising triggered by the 2005 truck bomb assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Many Lebanese blamed Syria for Hariri's death.

Wael Abu Faour, minister for refugee affairs, said lack of Lebanese consensus over the refugee issue has led to some shortcomings in dealing with the arrivals.

The Lebanese government, dominated by Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group backed by the Syrian regime, initially balked at establishing camps for the refugees. It was eager to avoid fostering an image of a humanitarian crisis from the Syrian civil war - not to mention a repeat of the Palestinian experience.

Across the country and particularly in the impoverished northern city of Tripoli and eastern Bekaa region, many of the Syrians are staying in unfinished houses, construction sites, schools and sometimes even parking lots.

Arsal, an impoverished Sunni town of 40,000, has had more than a 30 percent population increase because of refugees.

Many Lebanese have accepted Syrian families into their homes. In Palestinian refugee camps, residents have built a camp within a refugee camp for their compatriots escaping the violence across the border.

Reading rooms, offices, hallways and even bathrooms have been partitioned with makeshift walls, boards and even blankets as families try to carve out space to cook, eat and sleep.

A report by Doctors Without Borders issued last week said Syrians who seek safety in Lebanon do not receive anywhere near adequate levels of humanitarian assistance and are living in extremely precarious conditions.

More than 50 percent of people surveyed by the organization are housed in substandard structures in inadequate collective shelters, farms, garages, unfinished buildings and old schools.

Mohammed Ghazaleh, 22, rejects the notion that Lebanese are xenophobic.

"That is not a racist approach, that is just simple mathematical sense," said the Lebanese mechanical engineer student studying in Austria. "Lebanon doesn't have enough drains for rain water. Lebanon doesn't have enough electricity for its own citizens. How can it possibly take half a million Syrians?"

Fed up with the Lebanese complaints that the refugees were to blame for the country's ills, including inflation, street harassment and rising crime, a group of activists from the Beirut-based Anti-Racism Movement created a video urging the Lebanese to take responsibility for their own shortcomings.

"This morning on my way here, I was harassed by a man on the street. He had a Lebanese accent, he was not from Homs nor from Aleppo," says a woman activist on camera, referring to two cities in Syria. "Stop whining about the refugees, nobody's asking you to do anything for them," says another.

"The problem is not the refugees, the problem is us," the video concludes.